Rebecca Moon and The Boy in the Bottle

Chapter 4: The Ghost

Rebecca seethed with anger. Her breath was shallow and her eyes dilated; she stared down at her feet, holding tightly onto the steering wheel. White knuckles protruded from under her skin and her thoughts swirled in her mind.

"Ty," she began to ask, but stopped. He looked at her from the dash of the truck. She then continued. "Why, would a massive group of gremlins attack us? Oh my God, what am I saying, how is this a legitimate question?"

Ty looked as though he was trying to figure out how to tell Rebecca something, Darcy simply licked his claw, trying to get gremlin bits out of his paw. Rebecca looked up to see Ty thinking.

"Ty?" She asked impatiently.

He held his hands up, as if pushing for more time, and he began. "It's just; I know how scary this can all be. I remember when I was introduced to it. I know you're angry."

"No, you don't," Rebecca interrupted. "You have no idea. I find a boy in a bottle, and then I'm off running around at night getting attacked by an army of Geico insurance mascots, and for what? I don't even know. You need to start telling me exactly what's going on, before I drive any further. Or I will turn around and I will let you stay pickle sized and canned forever. You got me?!" Her finger was pointed directly into his face, and he had to bend sideways to see her eyes.

"You're right," Ty said. "I was so concerned about the time; I forgot what I was putting you through. I'm sorry."

Rebecca brought her finger back and breathed in, repositioning herself. "That's right. So, tell me. What in the world have I gotten myself into here? What's happening? Why are you in a bottle?"

Before Ty could begin, Darcy stopped licking his stretched out leg. "Can we please keep moving, while you tell your sap story? We have places to be. More specifically, take highway 213 north."

Rebecca put the car in drive and pulled back onto the road, which was becoming much more civilized as the minutes passed. Dirt gave way to gravel and gravel gave way to cracked concrete. Soon the road was actually paved, and easy to navigate. "You're like the world's furriest GPS."

Darcy went back to licking, and Rebecca eyed Ty, expecting him to begin. When he didn't she glared at him a little longer, prodding him to start his story.

"OK. OK. So uh, where were we? Before, you know..."

"The gremlins attacked?"

"Yep. Ok."

"The Magi are a bunch of Magic cops."

"Kinda. We look into supernatural and weird things. Long time ago there was an influx of magical creatures just popping up in the world. No one knows why, no one knows where they came from. There just showed up. But that really has nothing to do with me being in here."

"Then get to it, Ty," Rebecca said, being very impatient.

"Right," he said putting his hand up. "While ago there was a rogue Magi. Did some things that most of the order wouldn't be super proud of."

"So a bad guy, did he put you in there?"

"Again, it's not that simple. But kinda. See I have a sister. She and I were orphans, and we were taken into the Order of the Magi, together. The only things we had to hold onto were the order and each other. It was always us against the world. When reports came to the Order of Bethany's top Magi, my sister wanted to go after him. Said it was the best way to get their attention, and maybe we could finally start to really do some good."

"You didn't wanna go after him?" Rebecca asked.

Ty looked worried. "No. I didn't. And when he was confronted? Dona was cursed. It should have never happened; she should have never gone after him."